Monday, November 28, 2011

New England new state car sticker, 1960s

This is a New England New State movement car sticker from the 1960s. I had it on my first car.

I have no doubt that if we had won the 1967 vote, we would have been a bloody sight better off. Even if we did not have a new state by now, we could not have been ignored in the way we have been. IMG_0002

8 comments:

Greg said...

Jim, I have no doubt that it was an opportunity lost. Compare the development of Qld since 1967 to that of NNSW. We have been totally outstripped. We might have been anyway - but I doubt that it would have been anywhere near to the same extent.

Mark said...

Seeing this photo makes me want to visit the Newcastle University's library. There is a donated private collection of various propaganda pieces stored there that I'd love to look at. Thanks for sharing this Jim.

Chris R said...

Jim, I wonder how hard it would be to produce something similar to this now, what with all the high-tech gizmos we have at our disposal?

I'd love to have one on back of our car right now.

Rod said...

I'd have one on my car too Chris R. and I'm not the type for bumper stickers!

Greg said...

I'd put one on my car.

Greg said...

Jim, further to my orignal post - in 1967 NSW had a total population of 4.3m - of which NNSW comprised approximately 25% - perhaps 1.1m.

QLD had a total population of 1.7m. I am guessing that a little over half that was in SEQ - perhaps 1m.

In the 4 decades since, NNSW grew to about 1.5m out of about 7m. By comparison QLD grew to more than 4m with about 70% in SEQ.

NNSW and SEQ are neighbours with similar climates and similar geographies. So why should development in SEQ have so far outstripped NNSW in the space of less than 1/2 century? What do they have that we don't?

The obvious answer is self-government. It is an indictment on the Sydney-centric government in NSW and a pointer to what might have been.

How can we afford to not get self-government? Another 40 years of Sydney rule will see NNSW as a backwater.

Jim Belshaw said...

Hi all. It wouldn't be hard to do a bumper sticker like this, although we might not want to use the exact boundaries. We already have a very similar graphic on the new state site.

Greg, I fear that you are right!

Jim Belshaw said...

Mark, do visit the library so that you can tell us what's there.